Hey Ella, thanks for the reminder. I finished the book late last week and found some powerful insights. The recommendations may not suit someone who needs constant engagement in their role, like CEOs or client servicing professionals (or community managers). Still, techniques like the deep-shallow rating scale and concepts such as attention residue and context switching are proper game-changers.

I’ve quit social media several times before, and I believe a complete exit is difficult if you’re looking to build any audience. If I had an existing audience, I’d move all communication to my website and phone. The problem, in my view, is not social media but the combination of addictive design and the inability to handle the existential dread that silence often seems to stir. Deep Work also has an excellent section on choosing and assessing ’tools’, including social media, that I thought was a valuable exercise to complete.

Agree complete with Adarsh Nalam re the problems of social media and time sucking .However, social media pretty much transformed my life so I won’t getting rid of my accounts.

I’ve met hundreds of people in real life either directly through social media or being introduced to them through people I know on social media e.g. following writers on Twitter led me to attend Word Factory events which is where I met Lexi Radcliffe-Hart who subsequently lead me here.

Again through Twitter I became part of an English speaking community of Benfica supporters and I’ve subsequently met people from all around the world in Lisbon, some of who are now very close friends. I also get to practice my terrible Portuguese!

I obviously have friends who I met in real life but they’re scattered all over the UK and internationally so I don’t see them as much. Facebook keeps me in contact with old school, uni and work friends I’d otherwise lose touch with and my ski buddies from skiing in Whistler. I do limit time on Facebook though as it’s a visual migraine. I share my photography and get inspiration from other photographers on Instagram.

I really like Cal Newport and the book but he has a clear mental separation between on line and ‘real life’ relationships with interactions with online being low quality. I just see them as interchangeable.

Hi Ella, good prod to get going on the book ! I’ve not started it yet – but will do. That said I’ve just finished Digital Minimalism, also by Cal Newport – which I’m sure covers a lot of the same ground, maybe with a more nuanced outcome in mind. I have to say it did give me pause for thought and has really influenced my use of digital technology (not just social) – the biggest take away from that was – use tech consciously – ie don’t mindlessly reach for your device when you have down time; don’t mindlessly scroll through social media – be aware of why you’re doing it – whats your objective – and make sure what your using is the right tool for the job.

Also – when is the next call ? Thanks !

I have finally had time to into the book and am enjoying the reasoning behind the approach and also the benefits of deep work. Technique is everything – It feels like the challenge is how to perfect the strategy (prepare the field) rather than how to do deep work itself.

On complete digital detox – this is hard to do across all platforms but a partial, focussed approach would reap rewards.